


Desperate Measures

by SilverServerError



Series: Monster on the Mountain [5]
Category: CLAMP - Works, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Dragon Kurogane, M/M, Phoenix Fai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 02:16:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7248082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverServerError/pseuds/SilverServerError
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a push against the rock, Fai pivots, once again stepping out into the open, hands up and ready to block another attack.</p><p>Instead a wave of fire washes over his knees and feet, as gentle but inevitable as if Fai were standing in the shallows of the ocean.</p><p>He frowns. “Don’t tell me you’re getting tired already.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

> Do you guys get what I'm doing with the titles? I'm a nerd. It makes me happy. ;u;
> 
> Fun fact: This was written to '6 Inch'. Is that entirely appropriate? Maybe not. But it is a damn good song.

Fai’s chest heaves as the hurries to get his breath back. He has taken refuge behind a dark boulder, still sharp and broken from the explosion that must have thrown it out onto the now hardened lava field during the last eruption. The rock doesn’t glow, but he can hear the creaking and feel the heat radiating from their entire arena. Part of that heat might still be the energy from the earth. Most of it is the residual effect of Kurogane’s attacks.

 

With a push against the rock, Fai pivots, once again stepping out into the open, hands up and ready to block another attack.

 

Instead a wave of fire washes over his knees and feet, as gentle but inevitable as if Fai were standing in the shallows of the ocean.

 

He frowns. “Don’t tell me you’re getting tired already.”

  
  
Kurogane’s response is a short blast of fire that Fai has to hurry to catch. He holds his hands out, absorbing as much of the flame there as he can. As he takes the heat into himself, his hands glow orange, then yellow, but the rest stays flesh and blood. By no means does it absorb the whole of the attack, but it is enough to keep his torso unscathed. Unfortunately…

 

“Damn it!” Fai curses once the fire dissipates. He flicks his digits towards the ground and the flames fall to the earth like drops of water. His hands quickly cool to that charcoal-black state again. At the side of his thigh, his new robes are burning. “I told you I liked these!” Fai pats his hands there to smother the flames. What isn’t left singed is now dirtied by ash. Fai sighs. It’s still wearable, but not in polite company. There is an edge to his voice when he chides, “Now, that wasn’t very nice, Kuro.”

 

“I grow bored of this.” Kurogane is sitting back on his haunches, tail curled around himself. If Fai had to put description to it, he’d probably go with ‘haughty’.

 

“You’re not bored.” Fai said, already willing himself to just let the robes go; It’s not like he’s about to get any sympathy for them. “You’re frustrated because you’re not very good at it.”

 

“It serves no purpose. You ask for… For parlor tricks.”  
  
At Fai’s request, Kurogane had been trying a new type of flame. If he kept his throat tight, instead of the normal rolling flame, he could create a focused stream of fire that struck much faster and much more precisely. It was however something he wasn’t used to, and the muscles involved had quickly grown fatigued, then sore.

 

Not that he’s about to admit that.

 

“It’s not a trick. It’s a technique.” Fai scrubs a hand against the staining, but it does little to shake the dust free. Maybe with some water he could clean it out? The garment isn’t entirely beyond repair. He could re-hem it to turn the burn into a split up the side. It would be work, but worth it for the fine grade of the material. “Honing it is an advantage that might come to serve you. I mean, _anyone_ can throw a fireball.”

 

“Can _you_?” Kurogane asks with a smirk.

 

Fai’s mouth opens and he takes a breath like he’s about to argue. Then he thinks better of it and looks off to the side, frowning.

 

“Apologies,” Kurogane chuckled, clearly not meaning it. “But I am finished here.” Then he turns to start up the path towards his cave.

 

But as far as Fai is concerned, that’s not good enough. He bends down to hit a bangle against the hard stone. It’s not ideal, but there is enough of a spark for him to catch. If they’re going to start doing this in earnest, he should probably start wearing his flints.

 

He builds the flame between two hands, then compresses it. With a flick of the wrist he sends it flying where it connects with Kurogane’s flank and explodes with a bang and hiss.

 

Kurogane stops and looks back.

 

It hadn’t been enough to damage him, but it had been enough to hurt.

 

“You!” Kurogane growls, bearing back down on him, sending a fireball in his direction.

 

But Fai is finished warming up. If Kurogane wants to hit him, he’s going to have to move a lot faster. So he concentrates, gathers his resolve, tightens his throat and spits out a stream of white-hot flame. The faster projectiles pared with his natural speed and dexterity make for a heart pounding match. Fai is obviously feeling the strain, but he keeps up. The different type of flame is one he can catch in his palm when it hits too close to dodge, which, as Kurogane gains experience with it, is more and more often.

 

Soon he has Fai backing away, arms weaving ahead of himself as he catches flame after flame, gathering them into his palm and snuffing them out between his fingers.

 

“Good!” Fai laughs, with sincere enjoyment in his voice. But it only serves to irk Kurogane that Fai is acting as some sort of teacher, which annoyingly, Kurogane supposes he _is_.

 

His frustration is only compounded when he realizes Fai’s retreat has lead them to the edge of the lava flats and his opponent disappears into the foliage.

 

* * *

 

 

Fai sits carefully balanced on the tree branch. The bite of the rough bark against his thigh and calf is something he has to will himself to ignore. He is breathing easier now, and takes a moment to pause. Gingerly, he leans back against the trunk and with a idle hand he starts to pick the leaves and small bits of branch out of his hair.  
  
In tight quarters like the jungle floor, Fai had held an advantage over Kurogane’s speed and size, but only if he was willing to dive through bushes and get a few scrapes in the process. It hadn’t been easy, but he is a master at evasion.

 

FWHUM.  
  
The leaves shake the slightest bit as, far above, Kurogane continues circling, searching for his prey. Fai smiles as he watches the shadow that is the dragon’s underbelly cut across the white-blue of the sky. He can read his frustration in the tight hold of the claws, in the darkening trail of smoke he leaves behind, in the quality of his roars.

 

Fai is a master of evasion, but there can be too much of a good thing.

 

Especially when your predator looks like he’s about to lose interest and head home.

 

Fai takes a deep breath and holds his hands cupped around his mouth. With a contraction of his abdomen and ribcage, he lets out an inhumanly loud and piercing shriek.

 

Up in the air, Kurogane twists a wing and changes direction with a serpentine precision. The next moment he straightens out and with a single powerful flap, he dives towards Fai.

 

The blonde’s eyes widen and he curses under his breath.

 

He hadn’t thought his hearing would be _that_ precise.

 

He slips off the branch and hits the ground running. He needs to put as much distance as he can between himself and where he called before Kurogane can…  
  
The tree cover runs out suddenly and without warning. Fai doesn’t need to look to check whether or not Kurogane has noticed him because he can hear the wing flap as the dragon adjusts his flight direction to the new target. Before the blonde is nothing but meadow that quickly turns to rocky cliff and far below that, ocean. He turns to double back towards the foliage, but that is when Kurogane lands with a ground-shaking impact, taking a few trees out in the process. Fai’s hands come up to guard his eyes against the small gust of dust and dirt his landing creates.

 

He brings them down slowly.

 

Kurogane does not look amused.

 

“You did it.” Fai laughs nervously. “You found me.”

 

Something between a huff and a growl rolls from Kurogane’s chest and small flames bleed out between his teeth as he stares Fai down with crimson-red eyes.

 

The blonde holds his hands up before him. It’s supposed to be a placating gesture. He sincerely hopes it works. “The game is over.” He says lightly. “We can go home now.”

 

Kurogane takes a step forward and Fai takes one back, a hand coming to the pin that has been keeping his robe fastened at his shoulder.

 

“I’m not playing,” Kurogane growls. Fai can see his mouth glowing from within as he speaks. “And I’m not finished either.”

 

Fai swallows. Kurogane is furious, but he doesn’t think he can sense rage driving him to actual madness.

 

Still…

 

Despite the easy companionship they’d fallen into, his still doesn’t know Kurogane. Certainly hasn’t tested his limits. He’s not about to take that chance.

 

He really, _really_ wishes he’d worn his flints.

 

They stand for a silent moment, watching each other.

 

Then Fai is the first to move. He pulls the pin and lets it fall to the ground. In the same movement he throws the robes to the side as he turns and bolts towards the cliff. A lesser creature might have been distracted by the fluttering silk, but Kurogane charges past it, treading it underfoot. He roars his rage at the fleeing blonde and shoots one of the deadly-fast flames at him.

 

Without breaking stride, Fai turns with an outstretched hand and catches it. He holds the fire to his chest as he follows his momentum and with a leap, jumps off the cliff, falling into the void beyond.

 

Kurogane scrabbles against bare stone to avoid the same fate, clutching to the rock even as his head peeks over the side.

 

He has no warning for the wall of fire that shoots up in front of him.

 

No. Nothing as indistinct.

 

There is a body. A tail the trails down in elegant curves. A long curving neck. Slender beak. Blue eyes and those familiar wings.

 

And all of it, in bright white-blue flame.

 

With slow wing flaps, the bird hovers before him, then lets out another piercing call.

 

“Fai?”

 

A talon reaches out and catches the back of his head by the spines and forces his skull down against the stone. In the same moment, fiery wings flap, sending an intense heat down in their wake. By the time Kurogane can look back up, the bird has shot high into the air.

 

Without a second thought, the dragon pushes off the ground and gives chase.

 


End file.
